"Any time you see a butterfly, you have to smile," said Dawn Harry, the naturalist at Bear Branch Nature Center, as she waited for participants to arrive for her "Butterfly Bonanza" program Aug. 9.

"The life cycle, how they go from egg to chrysalis to butterfly is intriguing," Harry said. "Caterpillars are cute, but then you get these beautiful creatures that emerge from the chrysalises. With a lot of insects you get the yucky factor, but butterflies are interesting and beautiful and they are very important to our ecosystem," Harry said. "They are pollinators. Without pollinators we wouldn't have a lot of the food we love to eat. We have these beautiful creatures that we share the environment with. We should ask ourselves, 'how can we help them out a little?'"

To start the program, Harry met participants in a classroom and got the children to giggle when demonstrating how not to thunder after a butterfly with your net in the air. Next, she shared tips on how to catch butterflies without harming them. She also showed each participant a milkweed leaf with a minuscule baby caterpillar attached. "After we catch butterflies, we are going to look for some of these," she said.

With more than 150 species of butterflies and skippers in Maryland, Harry was confident when she said, "We will absolutely find many varieties of butterflies, but our big goal is to find the monarchs."

On this day, the butterfly searchers ranged in age from 2 to senior citizen.

Tiffany McGinnis had brought her daughters, 7-year-old Lexi and 2-year-old Madison. "I thought it would be something educational and fun and something different to do on a Saturday afternoon," McGinnis said. "They love butterflies. We have a lot of butterfly bushes at our house and we do chase them at home, but I thought this would be more fun and maybe we would learn what some of the butterflies [names] are today."

Participants expressed excitement about catching a butterfly and it didn't take long for it to happen. A Cabbage White was the first one spotted, but it slipped out of the net. Then, 7-year-old Wyatt Prosperie caught a Spring Azure butterfly. The group watched as Harry showed them how to hold the tip of the net and then slip a hand inside to gently remove the prize. As everyone watched, it was transferred to a large cylindrical holding container.

Harry pointed out some of the plants that butterflies are attracted to: cornflowers, ironweed and joe-pye weed.

Lexi McGinnis crept quietly to a bush, held her net over a flower and then lowered the net, capturing a Cabbage White butterfly. She smiled. "I like to watch how they fly around," she said. "They are so pretty."

Soon the butterfly container was whirling with life — from the smaller and faster-moving skippers to the larger butterflies, whose slow-moving wings brushed the air delicately. There were Clouded Sulphurs, a Meadow Fritillary, a Tiger Swallowtail, Spring Azures, Cabbage Whites, Silver-Spotted Skippers and little Grass Skippers as well as a Hummingbird Moth. Thirty to 40 butterflies filled the container with color, but — even though they had been spotted in the air — not a single monarch.

"The monarch has the weirdest life cycle," Harry said. "A lot of butterflies overwinter in the chrysalis stage. I think the Baltimore Checkerspot is one [of the few] we have that overwinters in the larvae stage," she said of the species that is the Maryland state butterfly.

"Monarchs are weird because we get four generations every year and only the fourth generation migrates," Harry said. "The first three generations have a life cycle of two to five weeks and then the fourth generation flies all the way to Mexico. Their life cycle ends up being about six or seven months. They enter a reproductive diapause that slows down their entire aging process and reproduction system so they don't mate until they complete that trip," she said. "It is so cool."

After catching butterflies, the group followed Harry to the milkweed plants growing in front of the nature center. There she showed them how to spot monarch eggs and where to find tiny newborn caterpillars. Soon they had collected nine monarch caterpillars and eggs. Harry said she hoped to release them at the Monarch Madness Festival on Sept. 14, but it would depend on how quickly they moved through their life cycle.

At the end of the program, the butterflies were released.

Parent Amanda Ries said she had learned something new. "I didn't know that caterpillars shed their skins," she said.

"I caught more butterflies today than I can count," said Wyatt Prosperie.

"Catching the butterflies was the best," Lexi McGinnis said with a smile.

More about butterflies

At the Monarch Madness Festival, learn about monarch butterflies, see a monarch caterpillar and butterfly, participate in guided native plant and butterfly walks, view a life-cycle exhibit, hear guest speakers and storytellers, and enjoy kids' crafts, games, face-painting and more.